


Fireteam Daybreak: Roses and Thorns

by TheShadowsmiths



Series: Fireteam Daybreak [7]
Category: Destiny (Video Game)
Genre: FireteamDaybreak, destinythegame - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-12
Updated: 2016-10-12
Packaged: 2018-11-12 07:24:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11157057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShadowsmiths/pseuds/TheShadowsmiths
Summary: Dredgen Yor ruled the crucible and the wilds, with his Thorn and a presence that petrified even the bravest of hunters.





	Fireteam Daybreak: Roses and Thorns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A boring night on the Northern channel turns deadly when a young scout crosses paths with the Dark Guardian, Dredgen Yor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Find this on Bungie.net** : [Bungie.net](https://www.bungie.net/en/Forums/Post/215349326)  
>  **Deviantart** : http://fav.me/dakx840  
>  **Tumblr** : <http://fireteam-daybreak.tumblr.com/post/151729852428/roses-and-thorns>

_Can I see what you got there…? … yer cannon, can I see it?_

_I know you?_

_Not that I can say._

_And you wanna hold my piece?_

_Just that I never… seen one like it._

_No, you haven’t._

_Looks Dangerous._

_Seems, maybe, that’s the point._

_Suppose so._

_Can I see it?_

_Not likely._

The conversation carried up the canyon hill to her open window, where she sat polishing the bore of her rifle by candlelight from her lookout perch. The path along the Northern Channel to Palamon was a Bandit’s best friend, and tonight they were at it again, roughing up weary travelers who just wanted to be left alone. Hal had seen terrible things out in the wild, but nothing compared to the kind of depravity she saw in the eyes of men willing to take more from people than they had already lost. Monsters, they were… this world was so far gone now, beyond salvation; that’s why they’d called it the Collapse.

_Where’d… where’d you find it…? You hearin’ me?_

_He asked you a question._

 

But, lost as it was, sometimes this world still entertained her, and it sounded like things were about to get interesting. Emerald eyes lifted from her weapon and turned toward lantern lights flashing through the tree cover and the sound of the conversation with vague interest as she puffed on her cigarette and removed it from between her lips to exhale with a sigh.

_Didn’t find it. made it._

_Heh. Helluva touch you got then. You a ‘smith?_

_I look like a ‘smith?_

_Looks can be deceiving._

_Got that right._

_There a problem?_

The scout leaned forward in her seat and put out the cigarette in the metal ashtray she’d ripped out of a car years ago for the hell of it. Fingers nimbly slid the bolt back into the barrel and dry-cycled the rifle once on intuition before snapping in the four round cartridge; she stood up quietly and slung it over her back, put out the candle, slipped on her goggles, and climbed down the ladder.

_Doesn’t need to be._

_Glad we got that cleared up… now, about that piece._

 

Silence filled the air for a moment as she crept carefully down the mountain, four green figures lighting up bright in her lenses, one… darker than the others.

_Been to Luna?_

_Excuse me?_

_The moon. You been?_

_Nobody’s been._

_That a truth?_

_That’s a fact._

_Funny you’d make that distinction._

She could make out the voices more clearly now- three belonging to men from the city, men nobody would miss if they didn’t make it back that night, and one unfamiliar… empty but heavy, unsettling. It belonged to the other, the wanderer who’d been aimlessly wandering her neck of the woods for almost a week. The one who looked freshly dead, had she known better.

_Truth is, you must think you’re some kinda something special. With that attitude. The way you’re just dismissin’ us like we’re nothing… like we ain’t even here._

_Fact is… you ain’t near as rock solid as you figure. Fact is, special’s only special ‘til it’s not._

There was an uncomfortable twinge of something sinister that flickered through the air and pierced through her gut like silvered fear, making her sick. The Awoken swallowed, clenched her teeth, and continued to listen and sneak closer.

“The bones say otherwise.”

“Speak straight.”

“You say “nobody”. Bones say otherwise.”

“What bones?”

“All of them.”

“What’re you gettin’ at?”

“Too many to count.”

“You trying to get a rile outta us? Was only making conversation.”

“You really weren’t.”

The way he spoke made her stomach turn, but she was intrigued. Like a moth to the flame, she continued to lurk.

“We got a smart one here.”

“Experienced more than smart. But experience has its advantages.”

“Experience tell you to lip off to strangers just tryin’ to make talk?”

“Keep insisting and maybe we will.”

“Talk?”

“ _Have words_.”

“Ain’t that what we’re doin’?”

“My conversations tend to be a bit _louder_.”

Silence, even in her hitched breath. None dared speak, the message was clear.

“That a threat.”

“A truth.”

“Who the hell you think you are?”

“According to your facts, “nobody.” Yet, here I sit.”

“Doesn’t matter much how pretty yer cannon is. You keep it up, we’ll see just how loud you like to get.”

Rage boiled inside her as she again, saw that flash of ugliness she hated so goddamn much. The stranger’s dangerous aura suddenly seemed comforting. He clearly was not one to stand for much more of their pestering, and she had half a mind to let what was going to happen, happen. They’d brought this on themselves.

“You done talkin’ now? Guess he knows his place boys.”

“Ever have a nightmare?”

Hal’s jaw clenched. She was looking right at three of them.

“You playin’ games? Or just thick?”

“I know you have. This world? Can’t help, but.”

“I don’t have nightmares, I give ‘em.”

She rolled her eyes and made a face.

“You are a _goddamn cliche_. The picture perfect bandit.”

She almost laughed out loud but quietly thanked the man instead.

“Hearing your voice - the things you’re saying, the shade of the hard man you pretend to be…”

“Ain’t no shade.”

Then like a thunderclap three loud cracks rang out, so sudden it made her jump and cover her mouth with a silent scream. Two of the men dropped dead, lanterns clattered to the ground and blood spilled into the earth with a sense of urgency. Hands rattled against her cheeks violently as she took in scene. She hadn’t even seen him draw.

“Sit down.”

The bandit moved to run but his gun tracked his movement like a cobra with a venomous hiss.

“ _Sit. Down_.”

The last of the bandits fixed his eyes on the shadow of a man and slowly, quietly followed his direction. She could see the terror in his eyes… and while she was frozen by fear herself, there was no pity in her for him, for all the times she’d watched him pillage and murder travelers just looking for refuge. For all the times she’d seen the same look in their eyes. Hal’s lip curled and her brow hardened, the fear slowly left her.

“Your mouth just got your friends dead. This is what happens when you bore me. And right now…?” his voice trailed off and he shook his head disapprovingly with a growly sigh. “ _I’m so very bored_.”

“Wha- No, Listen-”

“Shhhhhh… “ The traveler mused eerily as he circled his prey.

“But-but… you’re a- you’re one of them… A Guardian, right? You’re supposed t’be one’a the good ones.”

““Supposed to be?” he scoffed. “Maybe I am. Maybe this is what “good” looks like. Anymore, who can tell?”

“I-”

The man raised gun from his resting place beside his thigh and aimed it between the Bandit’s eyes. Hallena’s heart thumped hard in anticipation, internally she cheered, _Do it_.

“You wanted to see my prize.”

“No… I-”

“ _Look at it_.”

“I…”

The man’s cries made her smirk in satisfaction. Justice in the wild was a beautiful thing, Karma even more so.

“Whimpering won’t stop what comes next. Look… Look at it. Open your eyes.”

There was a brief pause as the man slowly turned bloodshot, unblinking eyes up to the barrel of the weapon. The hunter’s exhibitionism was dark and clever, psychotic and indulgent.

“Not many get such a clean view,” he said, pride tugging smugly into one cheek. “The bone… you see it? Jagged- like thorns. I used to think of it as a rose, focusing on its bloom, but… the bloom is just a byproduct of its anger.”

The blubbering man on the other end of his hunger remained still and silent, but nodded to show he was listening.

“You have nightmares…? Ever seen a nightmare? Ever opened your eyes and realized the horror _wasn’t_ a dream? The terror _wasn’t_ gone?”

Eyes shifted uneasily and the bandit’s jaw clenched as his eyes screamed back of the horror of the moment.

“I’ve seen nightmares. They live in the shadows. They’ve been watching. I thought… it’s foolish, I know..” he paused with an ironic chuckle, “But I thought I saw a way. That maybe we could win, maybe-… we could survive.”

Hallena’s heart ached sympathetically as it dropped into her stomach and she furrowed her brow. She recalled the stories of a heroic Guardian gone mad from the Hunters that passed through Palamon, succumbing to the call of the whispers in the shadows, devouring the light of his enemies, his friends. Their warnings had been clear, “ _Stay away. if you see this man, run, he’s nothing but a rampaging beast, and he will bring you to ruin_.” But that wasn’t what she saw at all.

“But once you step into those shadows… it’s so very hard to walk in the light. Or…” He paused as he gazed unfocused into the darkness of the night. “Maybe I just wasn’t strong enough..”

 _There_ \- regret? No, something else… Eyes intently analyzed his tone, his body language, the wavelength at which ( _she could feel it now_ ) his light vibrated. Not sinister like before, but disappointed, bored.

Eyes hardened and he turned back to the man, fierce and firm. “Maybe. But I feel strong now.”

 _Oh Traveller, no, please_ , the man on his knees started again as he shifted the weapon in his grasp with an anxious twitch.

“I stole the dark. Or, maybe it stole me. Either way, here we are. And I’m hungry. _It’s hungry_. You have no Light beyond the spark of your pathetic life…” he snarled in disgust, “But a spark is something.”

An audible gasp escaped the man as the shadow pulled back on the hammer with a click.

“Open your eyes.”

One final crack and the whimpering ceased. The body slumped over lifeless and hit the ground with a soft thump and a puff of dust. A dead silence followed in the wake of the gunshot, devoid even of the dull hum of crickets and cicadas. Hallena’s hands were shaking with- with… she couldn’t quite place it. Fear? Anxiety? Thrill? Joy? So many feelings had crashed into her so quickly that she had forgotten her place, and the man now staring right at her. She gasped as his yellow eyes gleamed in the fading light. His stance was predatory, dissatisfied with his kill, and looking for his next game.

“Reveal yourself,” he commanded, no patience left in him.

On instinct, she rose as the words left his mouth and removed her night vision goggles to set unhindered sight on him for the first time. In the shadows cast by the overturned lanterns, she could only see the scars at the corner of his lips and the impatient snarl as his eyes contorted with them. Her mind frenzied fearfully as she waited for him to speak, to shoot, _something_ … Hallena’s hands trembled with a white-knuckle grip on her eyewear, but she stood her ground and dug her heels in, eyes averting his until she absolutely had to look into them. This would either be the beginning or the end and internally, she was grinning wildly.

 

“Who are you?” he started.

“A scout.”

“From where?”

“Nowhere.”

“Then why are you here?” he sneered in annoyance.

“Curiosity.”

“You mean spying.”

Hallena shook her head and swallowed hard as she saw him bristle. “I report to no one,” she replied defensively and kicked herself for it mentally.

“But you’re a witness.”

“More of a spectator.”

“Of what?”

“Justice.”

He grinned ruthlessly to himself.

“They were bad men. I won’t miss them.”

“Justice is a lie.”

“No, Justice is relative.”

“”Bad” is relative.”

“I suppose it could be.”

The shadow lunged off the path toward her and stopped at arms’ length as he lifted his weapon again, this time to her. Glowing eyes ripped wide as she stared down the barrel of gun, but focused more intently as she heard something… whispering. Entranced, she listened as it began to fade- then a multitude of screams pervaded her thoughts with shrill laughter and bloodthirsty screeching as something dark gripped her and ripped her out of her own mind for the longest short moments of her life. Monsters, cannibals… ripping, tearing, laughing. This was terror, agony, made of all things nightmarish and malignant.

“Still curious…?” he seethed sarcastically as he pulled back the gun and returned it to its resting place; she took in a sharp gasp and fell to her knees trembling as he started to walk away.

“Leave now, before I thirst for another life.”

 

The words caught as she stuttered after his shadow, propped herself up on one knee and staggered to her feet with a determined breath.

“ _Your Thorn…_ ” she paused as he turned on edge and bore an acidic glare that ate right through her.

It was despair, and hunger ( _pure hunger_ ), animalistic and raw. But not for her, for other things- leaving only the intent to hunt, to kill, to _maul_. Her heart throbbed in her ears, her soul screamed for deliverance; the way his eyes prowled terrified and thrilled her, captivated in a way that left her frozen and exposed. She wanted to run, but curiosity insisted. After several moments of holding her breath and watching him from behind quivering eyes, she exhaled.

“It has a beautiful sound.”

“Like snapping bones.”

“Approaching relief.”

For a moment the monster rested its rage, lowered its shoulders and considered her compliment with a crooked smirk as he rolled his head to one side. “Does it scare you…?”

“It does… _horrifies_ \- I’ve seen things… _visions_ … that I-” Voice cracked as she recalled the image of thrall feeding on her flesh. Hands moved to her forearm and gripped it tight; she could still feel their teeth tearing through her tissue. “I couldn’t even fathom in my wildest nightmares.”

“Terrors in the shadows.”

“Terrors, yes, but it’s… it’s more than that.” The scout paused and stiffened, took in a sharp, surprised breath as the stranger turned his face into the lantern light. He was a lure- young, handsome… the softness of his features battle worn, the weight of the world in the circles under his luminous eyes. Her heart palpitated, fear and arousal bursting from her with a small cry. “It’s liberation, _strength_.”

“Then you can hear it…?”

“It flays my spirit sharp as a knife- a song of death, of rebirth, of enlightenment.”

“ _Logic_.”

“No, Law.”

 

The shadow’s smirk turned wicked and sharp, she could see it in his eyes and the flick of his wrist to his hip as he sheathed his gun. “Then you _do_ understand.”

Understand was a strong word. The concept was too fresh to her to insinuate belief. “I can comprehend,” she affirmed quietly as she watched him consider her. He was glory and power, something to be feared and revered, something to be worshiped.

“Are you a god…?”

Amused, he turned away with an arrogant sneer stretched wide across his face. “I am a man.”

“You are no man but you call yourself not a god- maybe you are _salvation_ from the gods.”

“Some would call me a monster.”

“So Zeus said of Hades before he banished him to the underworld, but Hades was no monster.”

The man blinked in surprise. “ _No_?”

“Hades sought balance in his domain, no one soul greater than the other, none else greater than he.”

Her soft lids fluttered, weak and hopeless, as the man stepped to her until she was in his shadow, darker than the sunless sky, eyes lighting the edges of her face. It was cold and enveloping, comforting and still, like death. One hand reached for her throat and caught her jawbone between his thumb and index fingers, lifted her off her heels and loomed over her. “This earth is my domain… so who would you say is greater than I?”

“ _No one_.”

“Not even Hades?”

“Not unless you are Hades.”

“ _I am Yor_.”

“ _Then Hades is shit_ ,” she hissed confidently as she pressed up on her toes longingly and exhaled with a long, quiet whine. But he held her firm, fingers a vice on either side of her jaw and holding her lips just out of reach with an amused grin.

“What is your name, child of the Void?”

“I am Hallena.”

He smirked, wicked and delighted, eyes rolled back and an aroused moan left him in a way that made her shiver fearfully. “Your name is reminiscent of the _Ascendant_ … maybe you were meant to find me after all.”

“I believe in fate.”

“You believe in coincidence. Fate is divine.”

“As are you.”

A pleased chuckle rolled in his throat at her response, hive-yellowed eyes locked with hers as he lifted her onto her toes and brushed his lips against her open mouth as he spoke; his breath tasted of smoke and ash, like a drug she’d already known. “You flatter me.”

Her fingers wrapped around his elbow as toes traced the dirt beneath her. “As intended then.”

“But your adulation is meaningless.”

“Far from it-”

“ _I mean to me_.”

Fear bubbled again in her gut, like a geyser, and she swallowed as it slowly sank in, dug her nails into the fabric of his sleeve between plates of armor. The monster in his eyes roared back at her and she felt as though she had already been consumed; a small whimper escaped her, and teeth peered out the side of his crooked smile. In her twisted infatuation and strategic cunning, Hallena persisted.

“Let me follow you.”

“I have no need.”

“Or maybe you do.”

“What would lead you to believe that, _woman_?”

“Clearly, you are capable of so much on your own. Of course you don’t _need me_.”

Yor’s eyelids hooded as her eyes turned down between them, fingers dancing up his arm with a delicate touch. “But you may want, something.”

A disgusted look crossed his face and he nearly withdrew, but she continued.

“I’ve had my eye on you… you’ve been wandering these woods for a while now… perhaps you’re looking for something.”

“Looking, is not the right word.”

“Browsing, then- for anything that may be of interest.”

“Which I haven’t yet found.”

“Haven’t you…?”, she questioned, “Then how am I still whole?”

At this, Yor erupted into raucous laughter, set her back down onto her feet and released his hold on her.

“I’ve seen what you do to people that bore you.”

“Mm, but you haven’t seen what I do to those who toy with me.”

A full-body quiver erupted from the back of her neck all the way down to her toes. “I do not wish to toy,” she confessed, “Only to understand. To serve.” At this her eyes dropped to his chest, and this time she stepped to him with a boldness in her. “To fulfill.” Hand lifted to the armor on his chest and traced the jagged edges of the carapace fused to his armor and eyes flickered up to his hardened gaze. Hallena’s jaw trembled as she spoke. “There’s something special about you, _Dredgen Yor_ … and I want to witness your good deeds in all their glory.”

This earned a look of genuine surprise from Yor- that she had known his name and sought him out filled him with a pride he’d longed to know. A meager grin tugged into his pale cheeks in reservation, and he opened his lips with an audible breath in. “Then, I’ll allow it,” he agreed quietly, “… until I grow bored.”

“Then do what you will when the time comes…” she replied with a pause as she stepped from him and leaned down to pick up one of the lanterns and blew out the other. “So… where are we headed?”

“Palamon. You know the way?”

Hallena grinned and rolled her eyes. “I knew you were looking for something…” she stated as she turned back down the way he’d come. “Of course I know the way.”


End file.
